falleentiumfandomcom-20200215-history
Socialist Party Manifesto 575AER
FOR THE MANY, NOT THE FEW OUR PURPOSE is to create, on the firm base of a steadily growing economy, a better society for all the people of Falleentium: a strong, just and compassionate society, one where the handling of complex problems may be a source of pride to ourselves and an example to the world. Our appeal is to those who have faith in the capacity and humanity of their fellow-men, and to those who are not solely moved by the search for profit or the hope of personal gain. First, we believe that Falleentium's potential for improvement is enormous. Science, technology and the general growth of knowledge present great opportunities for social and economic advance. With foresight, intelligence and effort - with planning - we can harness the new technologies and the powerful economic forces of our time to human ends. But, without planning, with a return to the far right-wing free-for-all, people become the victims of economic forces they cannot control. Second, we believe that the contribution that ordinary people can make to our present welfare and national future is still largely untapped and undeveloped. People want more responsibility. It is this that makes us wish to extend opportunities for everyone to have a bigger say in making decisions, whether in their local community or in their place of work. It is this, too, that makes us place the highest priority on education and educational reform. These are not the aims of the right. They have always defended the power and privileges of the few. Third, we believe that society can now afford and must be ready to meet the basic needs of all its members. There should be decent housing for everyone; slums and overcrowding must be dealt with; immigrant ghettoes must not be allowed to develop. There should be work for those who seek it, in the nation as a whole and in every region. We must make a rising standard of provision for those who, on account of age, sickness or other circumstances, are unable to provide for themselves. A compassionate society is one that does not grudge help for those in need. We reject the Conservative view that misfortune is a private, not a social, concern, that medical care should depend on what people can pay rather than on what people require and that social expenditure should be ruthlessly pruned. Fourth, we believe that all people are entitled to be treated as equals: that women should have the same opportunities and rewards as men. We insist, too, that society should not discriminate against minorities on grounds of religion or race or colour: that all should have equal protection under the law and equal opportunity for advancement in and service to the community. Many of our opponents believe this, too, but today as often in the past the extension of human rights has had to wait for a left-wing Government. Fifth, we believe that we have a duty to the future; to ensure that the Falleentium we leave to the generation that follows is not spoilt by our misuse or neglect of the environment. We are still dealing with the slums, slag-heaps, derelict land and foul rivers of the first industrial revolution. Today we have to manage our own lives in a new industrial society so that we do not spoil our land, our water, our beaches - even the air we breathe - with noise, fumes, filth and waste. This will only be done by a Party which is not the creature of private profit, one which does not allow corporate donations by those who wish to strangle our democracy, who believe that their wealth can suppress the will of the people, the only party which fits this criteria is the Socialist Party. Sixth, we are proud of the contribution that Falleentium and its people have made and are making to the welfare of mankind. With our resources, our experience and our unique connections, we have a large and continuing part to play in solving world problems. The right still see their role primarily in terms of overseas bases and a costly and out-of-date type of military presence in the Far East. We see our role primarily in helping the poorer countries to develop and in the stand we take on basic issues of colour and race, while maintaining a cost-efficient and specialised general defence capability based on the continent but ready and trained for strictly international peace-keeping operations elsewhere. We believe our defence effort should now be concentrated inside our nation to stabilise our internal crises, contributing to collective security through established treaties which we shall seek to re-negotiate to the benefit of the Falleen people, and shall play our full part in creating a more secure, prosperous, peaceful and united world. The Falleentium we want is one we shall have to build together. It will not be easy to achieve; but our deeply rooted democracy, our tradition of tolerance and fairness, our confidence in ourselves, are enormous assets on which we can draw. But it is a far more attractive society, with a far greater potential for human happiness, than the selfish, cold, ruthlessly competitive model that our opponents want. In four years we have achieved many great things, from a wide array of investments into our public services, to the democratisation of the military and the reduction of the deficit and wasteful spending -- a Socialist government will make it possible to finish this great task that the people have entrusted upon us. --- Willy Brandt 1. THE ECONOMY The aims are simple enough: we want full employment; a faster rate of industrial expansion: a sensible distribution of industry throughout the country; an end to the present chaos in traffic and transport; a brake on rising prices and a solution to our balance of payments problems. As the past 20 years have shown, none of these aims will be achieved by leaving the economy to look after itself. They will only be secured by a deliberate and massive effort to modernise the economy; to change its structure and to develop with all possible speed the advanced technology and the new science-based industries with which our future lies. In short, they will only be achieved by socialist planning. A NATIONAL PLAN The Department of Economic Affairs shall be given the mandate to negotiate with both sides of industry, a national economic plan. This Department will frame the broad strategy for increasing investment, expanding exports and replacing inessential imports. In it's protectionist spirit, the Socialist Party shall seek to overturn the trade gap, increasing production and exports while decreasing imports. In the short term the Socialists will give priority to closing the trade gap- (a) By using the tax system to encourage industries and firms to export more. (b) By providing better terms of credit where the business justifies it. © By improving facilities and help for small exporters, particularly on a group basis. (d) By encouraging Falleen industry to supply those manufactures which swell our import bill in time of expansion. With proper stimulus we can produce many of those things we are now forced to import from abroad. PLAN FOR INDUSTRY Within the national plan each industry will know both what is expected of it and what help it can expect - in terms of exports, investment, production and employment. If production falls short of the plan in key sections of industry, as it has done recently in bricks and in construction generally, then it is up to the Government and the industry to take whatever measures are required. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP The public sector will make a vital contribution to the national plan. We will have a co-ordinated policy for the major fuel industries. Major expansion programmes will be needed in the existing nationalised industries, and they will be encouraged, with the removal of the present restrictions placed upon them, to diversify and move into new fields : for example, the railways' workshops will be free to seek export markets, and the Federal Coal Board to manufacture the machinery and equipment it needs. Private monopoly in commodities such as steel will be replaced by public ownership and control. The water supply industry, most of which is already owned by the community, will be reorganised under full public ownership. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY If we are to get a dynamic and expanding economy, it is essential that new and effective ways are found for injecting modern technology into our industries. To get more rapid application of new scientific discoveries in industry, new measures are urgently required. A Socialist Government will (i) Go beyond research and development and establish new industries, either by public enterprise or in partnership with private industry. (ii) Directly stimulate new advance by using, in the field of civil production, the research and development contracts which have hitherto been largely confined to military projects. MOBILITY AND TRAINING Skill, talent and brain power are our most important national resources. In industry, though there are some first-rate training schemes, they are few and far between. Most young people, and particularly girls, are still denied either adequate training at work or release for further education in technical colleges. Older people who wish to change their jobs meet such obstacles as loss of pension rights and the absence of retraining schemes. The Socialists believe that the national plan will require a faster rate of change in industry. To meet the human needs that will arise it is essential to combine with our education reforms a revolution in training. We must also extend joint consultation in industry, develop new techniques for forecasting future manpower needs and adopt radical new measures to reconcile security with mobility. To this end we shall implement a charter of rights for all employees. This will include: (a) The right to compensation for loss of job or disturbance. (b) The right to half-pay maintenance during any period of sickness and unemployment. © The right to first-rate industrial training with day and block release for the young worker. (d) The right to retraining for adult workers. (e) The right to full transferability of pension entitlements. (f) The right to trade union representation and proper safeguards against arbitrary dismissal. (g) The right to equal pay for equal work. We shall also strengthen the factory inspectorate in order to reduce accidents. FIGHTING INFLATION The biggest challenge facing any industrial nation today, is how to expand the economy without pushing up its costs. The answer lies in increasing our productivity. Only in this way can we keep our lead over our competitors and ensure an improvement in the real standard of life for our people. A Socialist Government shall seek to establish a Prices and Incomes Board to spell out how wage increases can be paid for by increased productivity and in scrutinising the case for price increases. Under a Socialist Government, people and industry will co-operate in a new effort to keep prices down. FOOD AND FARMING The importance to the economy of Falleen agriculture is beyond question. Our policies will continue to be devised to the benefit of the farmer as well as the consumer. We intend, first, to promote an expanding farm industry. This policy is based on the proved system of guaranteed prices and production grants. However, we are continuing to develop arrangements for greater market stability; we have recognised the need for clear long-term objectives; and for the first time have introduced successive long-term programmes for agricultural expansion. We shall continue all that we are doing to improve life in the rural community. PLAN FOR TRANSPORT Nowhere is planning more urgently needed than in our transport system. The tragedy of lives lost and maimed; growing discomfort and delays in the journey to work; the summer weekend paralysis on our national highways; the chaos and loss of amenity in our towns and cities - these are only some of the unsolved problems of the new motor age. Far from easing these problems, thethe last 20 years of policy of breaking up road and rail freight co-ordination, of denationalising road haulage and finally of axing rail services, have made things worse. The Socialists will draw up a national plan for transport covering the national networks of road, rail and canal communications, properly co-ordinated with air, coastal shipping and port services. The new regional authorities will be asked to draw up transport plans for their own areas. While these are being prepared, major rail closures will be halted. The Socialist Party believes that public transport, road and rail, must play the dominant part in the journey to work. Every effort will be made to improve and modernise these services. The Socialist Party will also ensure that public transport is able to provide a reasonable service for those who live in rural areas. NATIONAL INCOMES POLICY To curb inflation we must have a planned growth of incomes so that they are broadly related to the annual growth of production. To achieve this a Socialist Government will enter into urgent consultations with the unions' and employers' organisations concerned. TAX REFORM As essential support to a fair national incomes policy will be a major overhaul of our tax system. Taxation must be fair and must be seen to be fair. In particular we shall tax capital gains; and block up the notorious avoidance and evasion devices that have made a mockery of so much of our tax system. We shall also seek to lighten the burden of rates which today falls heavily on those with low incomes. INVESTMENT POLICY A Socialist government will apply tests of the national interest before agreeing to subsidies for private manufacturing industries and will insist, as would any prudent private investor, on a voice in the control, and a share in the profits, where public funds are involved. Waste and profiteering by Government contractors, on defence and the health service, will be vigorously attacked. PEOPLE AND JOBS If Falleentium is to develop her full potential, we must recognise that men and women are even more important than the machines they use. As our industrial structure changes we must see that workers are not left stranded by technological change. We must help them to acquire the skills they need to man the new industries; offer them a wider choice of job opportunity. For this, a Socialist government shall make plans to create a National Manpower Service as a modern instrument of manpower intelligence, the forward planning of our manpower needs and the creation of greater job opportunities. To supplement this, Industrial Training Boards shall be increased in number to play the vital role of helping to meet urgent shortages of skilled labour and to retrain redundant workers for new jobs, particularly in the development areas. 2. PROSPERITY IN THE STATES We are determined to see that employment, prosperity and opportunity are spread more evenly through the different regions of our country. The aim of a Socialist Government is to keep the country's resources fully used. Falleentium no longer suffers from mass, long-term unemployment. In some areas there is an acute shortage of labour. Unemployment today is largely a problem of the development and intermediate areas. That is why a Socialist Government has pursued and will pursue a vigorous policy of regional development. We shall seek to define Development Areas, Special Development Areas and New Intermediate Areas. These are all areas that need, in different degrees of urgency, assistance in the supply of new jobs. Through this system, we shall be able to tackle the inequality haunting the less prosperous states of our federation. It is here, in the least prosperous regions, that the human impact of technological change is most keenly felt. And it is here that we have tried hardest 40 protect the families and communities from this impact. It is here that redundancy payments and earnings-related pensions are of the greatest value. And it is here, too, that we are obliged to bring new work and new opportunity. Firms wishing to build new factories and offices in areas where work is already plentiful shall been stringently controlled through the industrial and office location machinery. At the same time Industrial Development Certificates shall be freely issued to firms wishing to expand in areas of high unemployment. But controls, though essential, are not enough. Where serious economic disadvantages arose for firms operating in the development areas, many kinds of special assistance are to be granted for stimulating growth. STATE COOPERATION It will not be enough to plan employment alone on a regional basis. However, regional planning is also necessary if we are to solve the problems of slum clearance and overcrowding in our major cities; to carry out a vigorous programme for new town and overspill development; to save the countryside from needless despoliation; and to get the co-ordination of higher education, further education and industrial training required to maintain economic expansion. To bring together the different tasks of regional planning, and the different Departments concerned, the Socialists will create regional planning boards, equipped with their own expert staffs, under the general guidance of the Department of Economic Affairs. These planning boards will work closely with representatives of the local authorities, both sides of industry and other interests in the region. SELF DETERMINATION The Socialist Party currently finds itself the lonely voice in the Imperial Party that advocates the upholding of our democratic values. To the people of Hastiga and Veldunium, who have repeatedly made their voices heard on their wish for self-determination outside the Empire, we pledge to support their cause in the Chamber of Deputies. The same appreciation, respect and admiration of democracy shall be extended to the people of Haalsia, who we know have been treated unfairly and undemocratically by the local authorities and by former federal governments who shamelessly rigged the democratic process to further their agenda and snub at the Haalsian people. To them too we pledge for a legitimate and fair Yes-or-No independence referendum from the Falleen Empire once the situation has been stabilised and Haalsia has been sufficiently reconstructed. 3. SOCIAL SERVICES Drastic reforms are now needed in our major social services. For the children, this will mean better education; for the family decent housing at prices that people can afford; for the sick, the care of a modernised health service; for the old people and widows, a guaranteed share in rising national prosperity: for all of us, leisure facilities better geared to the coming age of automation. EDUCATION The widening and extension of education is the best preparation that we can make for our people and our country for the world of tomorrow. Investment in people is also the best way of developing a society based on tolerance, co-operation and greater social equality. The education system itself must not perpetuate educational and social inequalities; that is one reason why full integration of secondary education is essential. But progress in the field of education must be accompanied by measures to deal with social and economic inequalities elsewhere. Our country's "investment in people" is still tragically inadequate. (i) Socialists will cut down our overcrowded classes in both primary and secondary schools: the aim is to reduce all classes to 30 at the earliest possible moment. (ii) To minimise the effects of the postponement of school leaving on the large family, the Socialists will replace inadequate maintenance grants with reorganised family allowances, graduated according to the age of the child, with a particularly steep rise for those remaining at school after the statutory leaving age. (iii) As the first step to part-time education for the first two years after leaving school, the Socialists will extend compulsory day and block release. (iv) Socialists will carry out a programme of massive expansion in higher, further and university education. To stop the "brain drain", Socialists will grant to the universities and colleges of advanced technology the funds necessary for maintaining research standards in a period of rapid student expansion. (v) The Socialists will set up an educational trust to advise on the best way of integrating the public schools into the state system of education. (vi) Finally - and most important - since everything depends on teachers, The Socialists will give to teacher supply a special priority in its first years in office, negotiating a new salary structure including a new superannuation scheme favourable to part-time and elderly teachers, encouraging more entrants to teaching and winning back the thousands of women lost by marriage. LAND AND HOUSING For the past 20 years, the relentless pressure of decontrolled rents, high interest rates soaring land prices have pushed housing and flats beyond the reach of many ordinary families and have condemned yet another generation to squalid and over-crowded housing. Great strides have been made under the Living Spaces Act passed by our party, but more has to be done to make housing more affordable for all Falleens. A high level of building must continue, and while shortages exist, rent control policies must remain. There is no place for saving money on the nation's housing. Home ownership will be further encouraged. We believe that this will rise and should continue to rise. The Socialists will: (i) Introduce a policy of lower interest rates for housing. (ii) Further help the owner-occupiers by providing 100 per cent. mortgages through local councils; by advancing funds to the building societies so that they can reduce the deposits required on old houses; by reducing conveyancing and land registration charges; by insisting on measures to stamp out jerry-building on new houses and by encouraging local authorities to develop advisory and other social services to assist the owner-occupier. (iii) Carry out a new programme of modernisation of old houses. (iv) Accelerate slum clearance and concentrate aid and resources more heavily on those authorities with the biggest housing problems. OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEISURE Leisure, and the opportunities to pursue a wide range of recreational and cultural activities, must not be limited by lack of facilities. Socialist commitment to developing opportunities for leisure has therefore been immense: 1. The Arts: Our aim is to make sure that enjoyment of the arts is not something remote from everyday life or removed from the realities of home and work. Government spending on the arts shall be doubled. Local arts centres, regional film theatres, municipally owned and aided theatres, national and local museums shall be established or modernised. A National Theatre and National Film School shall be established. 2. Sport: Socialists shall invest into developing facilities and identifying recreational needs in sport across the country. The next step is to assist in the establishment of regional sports centres. We shall encourage the design of new schools so that they can also serve as multi-purpose sports centres for the adult community. We shall seek to cater for the growth sports, golfing, squash, sailing and so on. Angling is one of our most popular sports and we shall give special attention to its two great problems of greater access to fishing waters and to the prevention of pollution. 3. Countryside: The Countryside Commissions shall be established and be given wide powers to encourage and aid the provision of Country Parks and general amenities and facilities. 4. Tourism: Every year more and more tourists from overseas are finding Falleentium a vital and interesting place to visit. Our historic cities are a major attraction, and a Socialist Government shall initiate studies into the conservation of the ancient centres of these cities. SOCIAL SECURITY Social security benefits - retirement and widows' pension, sickness and unemployment pay - have been allowed to fall below minimum levels of human need. (i) Existing Insurance benefits will be raised and thereafter linked to average earnings so that as earnings rise so too will benefits. (ii) For those already retired and for widows, an incomes guarantee will be introduced. This will lay down a new national minimum benefit. Those whose incomes fall below the new minimum will receive as of right an income supplement. (iii) A new wage-related scheme covering retirement, sickness and unemployment will be grafted on to the existing flat rate National Insurance scheme. (iv) Widows' benefits will be reshaped in a new and more generous way and for them the earnings rule abolished. (v) A new national severance pay scheme will be introduced. In a period of rapid industrial change it is only elementary justice to compensate employees who, through no fault of their own, find that their job has disappeared. (vi) We shall work out new ways of extending home ownership; in particular we shall seek to reduce the amount that has to be paid in the initial deposit. PENSIONS The Socialists' new Pension Plan will incorporate radical concepts in social security; earnings-related contributions will mean a reduction for millions of lower paid workers. Benefits will be calculated in such a way as to assist the industrial worker and the below-average earner; there will be partnership with private occupational schemes, through which many will want to add to their state pension; full equality for women; a widow will receive the whole of her husband's pension; widows' pensions will be paid at 40; women will receive earnings-related sickness and unemployment benefit. The Socialist scheme is designed to abolish poverty in old age by enabling every worker to qualify for a pension at a level where supplementary benefit is no longer required. The wealth of the nation is increasing and those least able to care for themselves - the aged, the sick, unemployed and the widow - have a right to share in rising prosperity, and satisfy rising expectation. DISABILITY AND FAMILY POVERTY As part of the new Act, we shall develop a new deal for the long-term sick and disabled. There will be an earnings-related invalidity benefit, and a constant attendance allowance for the very severely disabled, which for the first time covers the non-earner, the wife and children. There is a continuing problem of poverty in low income families - a many-sided problem of low wage industries, of disability and of special difficulties. On all of these ta Socialist Government shall act to help, and we will take steps to provide further social support. We shall seek to take more low-income workers out of taxation. We shall review the present system of family allowances and income tax child allowances. On the special problem of the single-parent family, a Socialist Government shall set up a comprehensive study under a multi-party committee. HEALTHCARE The regrettable state of our health service has left many hardworking people across the country in want and misery. Although established many years ago, it has been criminally neglected by successive corporatist governments which had the interest of the few in mind, not the many. They left a desperate need for new investment and a considerable shortage of staff. Hospital building was virtually neglected for many years, something the Socialist alleviated. A Socialist government shall invest heavily into the reform and reinvigoration of our National Health Service with the ultimate goal of granting Falleens free healthcare at the point of use. We shall seek to establish an universal, single-payer National Healthcare Scheme which shall socialise healthcare and spread the costs evenly across the Falleen population, granting every citizen access to quality healthcare for free at the point of use and without having to pay outrageous amounts of money for treatment or medicine. We shall also seek to abolish prescription charges which heavily burden taxpayers with overpriced products. 4. PUBLIC SAFETY LAW AND JUSTICE It is a first duty of government to protect the citizen against violence, intimidation and crime. The Government will vigorously pursue the fight against vandals and law breakers. But the campaign for law and order must be linked to liberty and justice in a civilised society. Nothing could be more cynical than the current attempts by our opponents to exploit for Party political ends the issue of crime and law enforcement. We shall seek to extend the legal aid scheme and it is our intention to ensure that people with modest means can obtain legal advice and be properly represented in the courts of law. CRIME The streets of our cities are as safe today as those in any throughout the world. They must remain so. Socialists shall reorganise the police forces in this country and a record sum shall be spent on equipment. The number of police is to be increased higher than ever before. Equally important are our achievements in obtaining penal reform, in transforming our approach to the young offender, in democratising the magistrates' bench, and in our approach to rehabilitating the prisoner. This is an exceedingly difficult task while so many of our prisons are a century old and are gravely overcrowded; but it must be persisted in patiently, not only for the sake of the prisoner himself, but because his return to a decent way of life and to productive work obviously benefits society as a whole. 5. DEFENCE POLICY Too much of the budget and by extention taxpayer's money is wasted on military related matters and the arming of insurgents and nations across the globe. The Socialists will seek to divert these investments from a bloated military-industrial complex and back towards taxpayer's pockets. Furthermore, the Socialists will seek to maintain itself out of international military conflicts and serve solely as mediator, a keeper of peace and a nation which aids victims of war through humanitarian channels. It is therefor that drastic cuts shall be made to the defence budget and funneled into our decaying social services that have been neglected for the longest time. PEACE AND SECURITY A Socialist government would be the greatest advocate of world peace and resolution of issues through diplomatic channels. Such government would strife to:-- (i) A comprehensive ban on the testing of nuclear weapons (ii) A new international agreement to outlaw biological weapons (iii) An agreement to prevent the depths of the sea from being used for warlike purposes. As Socialists, we shall seek to strive for education, health and welfare to always exceed defence spending. The Socialists are determined that the Nilira Alliance shall not be merely a defensive pact: it must work positively for a relaxation of tension and reduction of forces. A Socialist government will fully supports any efforts to reduce the occasions for conflict and tension in the Far East. PLAN FOR HAALSIA The Socialist Party is fully committed to mobilising the national effort towards the peaceful conclusion of the Haalsian uprising. The Socialist Party however continues to pledge the importance of our democratic values and the right to self-determination of the people of Haalsia. The issue of Haalsia can only be put to rest once the people have given a clear, democratic and undeniable sign of support towards the continuation of it's membership in the Empire. Firstly however, Haalsia must be stabilised and more importantly, reconstructed. For this purpose, in the last parliamentary term, the government mobilised hundreds-of-thousands of troops for the purpose of peacekeeping operations in Haalsia and to stomp out radical and violent elements that threaten public safety in Haalsia. A Socialist government would pledge a comprehensive campaign to suppress these violent terrorist cells, whether pro- or anti-Falleen, and bring back stability and normalcy to the island. Furthermore, the Socialists shall commit billions Fall to the reconstruction of Haalsia's cities, towns, infrastructure, etc.Within this framework, once Haalsia has been rid of the malignant cancer of nationalist/loyalist terrorism, we shall pledge for an internationally monitored democratic referendum on Haalsia's membership of the Falleen Empire. Category:The Imperial Constitution